Driver says ‘angel’ was with him as driveshaft came flying through windshield

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IMPERIAL, Mo. – A man survived one of the most bizarre and harrowing accidents you’ll ever see, as a drive shaft from a truck flipped up and speared the windshield of his pickup truck while he was driving along Interstate 55 in Imperial.

Steve Montgomery, 56, of Poplar Bluff, claims an angel was with him.

He has a photo to back it up. Montgomery said he was driving home to Poplar Bluff from a painting job in O’Fallon, Missouri a little after 8:15 p.m. Tuesday when that drive shaft crashed through his windshield, right where his head was.

So often we hit the interstate – so focused on getting to where we’re going. Montgomery said he was glad he paid attention to what he thought was a pipe rolling around on the interstate minutes earlier.

A tow truck hit it and suddenly it wasn’t rolling around anymore, Montgomery said.

“It was just like a launching tube,” he said of the truck.

The drive shaft flipped up from under the tow truck’s wheels.

“It shot it out in the air, it was just flipping and flipping and flipping…like somebody grabbed it out of the air…it’s just like (they) just took it and speared it into the truck…I couldn’t actually sit up because the drive shaft was right where my face was…I shouldn’t even be here talking to you,” Montgomery said.

He ducked just in time and somehow kept his truck on the interstate with that drive shaft sticking out of his windshield until he could safely pull over. He couldn’t lift his head to actually see the roadway because the drive shaft was in the way.

There is something in the sky in one of his photos of the wreckage.

It’s bright and white in the shape of a “V” or maybe wings.

People may think it’s a reflection, but from where Montgomery was sitting, he had no doubt.

“I think an angel was driving the truck,” Montgomery said. “When I was down and I couldn’t see the highway to keep it in the road, somebody else was driving that truck.”

A couple in front of him pulled over figuring he was dead, he said.

Montgomery has that drive shaft at home. He's hoping the insurance company of driver of the truck that lost it will cover the repairs to his truck, a new 2017 Dodge Ram.

Right now, he can use help; Montgomery can’t use his truck but still needs to get back to work.